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Before you go into a conclusive
analysis of how Fernando’s Triple
Crown Grand Slam (pole, the win,
fastest lap and every lap led) in Singapore
gave him the sort of domination factor
we haven’t seen since that feat was
last performed (in Hungary, 2004, by
another Ferrari driver named Michael
Schumacher), understand for the record
that for the most part it was unbearably
close.
So close, indeed, that by the time race
night had dissolved into the humid dawn of
the Monday morning afterwards, as team
personnel were queuing in the security
lanes of Changi airport, it was clear that
the race had been defined by two ultra-fast
incidents that took place not on Sunday but
on the two nights that preceded it.
The first of those came late on Friday
evening, in Free Practice 2, when Fernando
Alonso was already indulging in a bit of a
race with Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. The
opening session, FP1, had been too wet off-
line for serious work to be accomplished;
it was the Singapore ‘rookies’ – a list that
included such names as Kamui Kobayashi,
Nico Hulkenberg and the afore-mentioned
Schumacher – who kept the massive
crowd entertained at dusk with some back-
whincing kerb-strikes and a few edgy-
looking power-slides.
The rain stayed away for FP2 but the
track took an age to dry, thanks to the
humid, windless air. They all needed their
‘data’, though. The Bridgestone compounds
needed to be compared; brakes needed
to be pushed, particularly on the heaviest
fuel loads that any teams have ever run in
Singapore.
Sebastian Vettel quickly showed his all-
round pace, dominating the lap on all three
sectors. Fernando responded with a quicker
lap, one that was purple in sectors one and
three.
Then Sebastian replied – and now it is
Fernando out there again, on Bridgestone
super-softs, quickest again in sector one
and looking beautifully relaxed and fluid
as he runs through sector two, missing
the damp patch on the left here, perfectly
meeting his apex there.
He exits Turn 17 with a tad too much
power, however, and lets the Ferrari F10
run right up on the soft exit kerb, holding
the throttle with half-a-turn of opposite
lock before allowing the car to straighten
again for the run down to the sharp Turn 18
left-hander.
It is straight, but it isn’t ‘flat’. The load is
still centred over that right rear. Fernando
jabs the Brembo brakes hard ... and the
Ferrari jack-knifes for a millisecond, flicking
him to the right, locking the inside front.
He aborts the corner entry and takes to the
escape road. Another small ‘event’ in the life
of Fernando Alonso.
Except that it doesn’t end there.
He selects neutral, then first – but he
has no drive. Nothing. He radios back to
base. “Okay, Fernando. We obviously have
a problem. Leave the car.” Fernando’s FP2 is
over. He waves to the crowds, talks to the
journalists. Sebastian Vettel sails calmly to
the top of the overnight charts.
Fernando did not make another mistake
for the remainder of the weekend – not a
mistake of this size, at any rate. It was gone
– out of his system when really it didn’t
matter.
Throughout FP3, qualifying and the
grand prix itself, Fernando’s Ferrari was
as flat as a flounder in the braking areas
– and it is in the braking areas, of course,
that all good street circuit dramas will
always begin. He bobbled the rear on
exit on occasion, as you do when you’re
Ferrnando Alonso in a Ferrari on a circuit as
photogenic as Singapore; and he nuzzled a
few high kerbs.
These moments were nothing, though,
in the overall picture. The Mistake had
been made – and it had been made when
it had had no consequence. From then on,
street circuit master that he is, Fernando
found his rhythm: be fast on sector one but
keep the car straight and narrow, leaving
margin where necessary; think of the kerbs
in sector two; and go for it, knowing the
pole is there, in sector three. This worked
well with Bridgestone, too, for the super-
soft took some time to find their optimum